Heritage ‘suffering

Plans to erect more buildings including multi-storey apartments in suburban Auckland are a “disaster” for heritage, Auckland councillor Sandra Coney says.

The Auckland Plan committee on Tuesday debated the council’s plan to intensify by building more homes to the north, south and west of the city.

Plans for the “southern cluster” of towns, which includes Pukekohe, Karaka, Drury and Paerata, would be the first to get under way as part of the council’s growth strategy to accommodate an extra one million residents in the next 30 years.

Ms Coney, supported by councillors Des Morrison and John Walker, expressed concern the plan was gaining momentum without being considered carefully enough.

“There will be sudden high rises in particular places, through a totally unorganised approach. We are going to end up with unmanaged, unattractive developments,” she said.

The Unitary Plan is Auckland Council’s resource management plan and would be used to manage future development on land and water.

The manager of the plan, Phill Reid, asked the committee to endorse the direction it is taking with development.

Though the committee voted in favour of the Unitary Plan direction, Coney said people in the suburbs would wake up to find five-storey buildings next to single storey ones.

“We’ve come to the right decisions in a lot of areas, but we’re making mistakes with heritage. As far as heritage – it’s a disaster.”

Councillor Anne Hartley wrote the comments off as scaremongering.

She said there will be no high rise buildings except in 10 metropolitan areas.